These people should study Japanese convenience stores. I doubt anyone can improve much on the fundamentals of that business model. I visit the local conbini every night, and it serves as my bank, post office, and of course source of snacks.
I saw a tv show about how the managers of each conbini uses a sophisticated app that aggregates inputs like weather and sales trends to anticipate demand for each product and help order and deal with logistics. Every cash register has a set of age bracket buttons, so that can track age demographic even for cash sales.
The original breakthrough of 7-11 when it first franchised in Japan was to use the stores as a distributed warehouse where almost all inventory is for sale almost all the time. Since then, they’ve been chipping away at refinements and there’s plenty of competition, not to mention jobs for immigrants, etc.
I read somewhere that the average person in Japan spends around US$6.00 per day at a conbini. Even with all the costs, that’s a pretty healthy revenue stream.